Nintendo Switch is about to overtake NES in lifetime sales
Meanwhile, Animal Crossing: New Horizons stole Smash Bros. Ultimate's crown as the console's second-best-selling game.
Nintendo Switch and Animal Crossing: New Horizons have sold astoundingly well.
Nintendo Switch overtook the SNES' lifetime sales over the 2019 holiday season, and it's about to beat the NES. The Japanese company's latest financial earnings report revealed that the hybrid console sold 61.44 million units, compared to the older console's 61.91 million, as previously noted by Nintendo Life.
Since the report only covers the period to June 30 and the Switch has been regularly selling out at various retailers, it could well have outsold the older console by now. Up to this point, the only console to outsell the NES is the Wii -- which is still way ahead with 101.63 million units sold.
A more detailed breakdown shows that the standard Switch (released in March 2017) has sold 52.63 million units and the more compact, portable-only Switch Lite (which came out in September 2019) sold 8.82 million units.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons, which came out in March, is now the console's second-highest-selling game, with 22.40 million copies sold. It beat Super Smash Bros. Ultimate's sales of 19.99 million (frustratingly close to nice, round 20 million). Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is still No. 1, having sold 26.74 million copies since 2017.
If you're curious about Nintendo's lowest-selling console, that's still the poor Wii U. It sold 13.56 millions, but fans should take solace from the fact that it led directly to the Switch.
